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Monday, July 2, 2012

Conservation: Defaced Buddha sculpture gets facelift

The nearly 20-foot-tall sculpture was defaced by the Taliban in 2007.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 26th, 2012.
By Fazal Khaliq
SWAT: To mark their territory in Swat, the Taliban destroyed almost
every structure that did not fit into their convoluted plans. Apart from
the schools, multimedia shops, and government offices, the
seven-century-old Buddha rock-carving in Jahanabad also took a share of
their ire.
The Taliban tried to demolish the nearly 20-foot-tall sculpture in
2007 and managed to disfigure a portion of the Buddha’s face. The issue
garnered criticism from the international community, as the sculpture
has been dubbed as the second largest rock-carving of Buddha, after the
one in Bamyan valley of Afghanistan, which too the Taliban managed to
deface.
But much to the liking of the international community, the structure
has been conserved by the Archaeological Community Tourism (ACT), under a
joint project of Italian Archaeological Mission and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
(K-P) Department of Archaeology and Museums. The project was funded by
the Italian government through a debt-swap agreement with Pakistan.
Conservator Fabio Colombo, who was selected to restore the Buddha
sculpture after his success in restoring the sculpture in Afghanistan
2004, said the complete restoration of the Buddha face depends upon
finding its broken fragments. “We found only two broken fragments of the
Buddha face; if we find more pieces we will be able to restore the face
in a better way,” he said. He added that the entire structure has been
consolidation and cleaned, and a crack formed by the blast has been
treated and glued.
A PhD scholar of conservation and cultural heritage management,
Faryal Ali Gohar, appreciated the initiative to conserve the seated
Buddha sculpture. “The philosophy behind the conservation is not only to
repair the damaged parts of the sculpture, but to re-establish the
antiquity of the sculpture which has had profound significance in this
valley during the climax of Buddhism,” she said. She added that the
restoration also signifies re-establishing the writ of the state.
“Seeing the sculpture especially at dusk is a profound experience. It
almost seems like the Almighty wished to showcase to the world and for
us to acknowledge that there was a community of people here who believed
in harmony, peace and tolerance,” said Gohar. She further said that it
is now the responsibility of the K-P government to provide security to
such archaeological sites. “We have to respect our heritage which is
very old, particularly in K-P,” she added.
K-P Department of Archaeology and Museums Director Dr Shah Nazar Khan
said he was grateful to the Italian mission for doing a “tremendous
job” of conserving the historical site. He said that the Buddha
sculpture in Jahanabad holds immense importance in the history of Swat,
K-P, Pakistan and the Buddhist world. “It is our duty to protect,
conserve, and rehabilitate archaeological sites not only from human
hands but also from natural hands,” said Khan, adding that this
department has initiated 11 such projects across the province.
According to Dr Luca Maria Oliveri, the head of the Italian
Archaeological Mission in Pakistan, all information and material of the
ACT projects will be displayed in the new Swat Archaeological Museum.
The museum is being constructed by ACT and will be completed by the end
of this year.
sourse:BUDDHIST ART NEWS